Turkey Gun Basics | Match The Hatch | Safety First
Open Country Gobblers | In the Dark | Playing The Game
The Final Touch | Field Care | Don't Over Choke

Turkey Gun Basics
By Brad Harris
A 12-gauge repeater with a 3-inch chamber is probably the most popular turkey gun. However, a 20-bore magnum will do a good job at reasonable ranges and its lighter weight and recoil are best for women and young hunters.
No matter what gun you choose, you should do three things before taking it hunting. First, shoot it at a large piece of paper to make sure that it hits where it is aimed. Guns that shoot nearly a foot off the point of aim are not unheard of. Under turkey shooting conditions that will often miss or would the bird. Individual guns can be picky about shot size and load. Try several loads to find one your gun shoots best. Finally, find out how far your gun shoots a good pattern. That is your maximum range.
The "best" range for most 12-gauge guns is about 40 yards and 30 yards for 20 bores. Use whatever load of No. 4, 5 or 6 shot works best in your particular gun.

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Match The Hatch
By Bill Jordan
Take a long and critical look at your spring turkey hunting environment. A hardwood forest's floor is mostly gray and brown. Even evergreen stands have lots of gray and brown down below. Most turkey hunting takes place at ground level. Thus a camo featuring a base of brown or gray is a good general, all-around choice.
Most spring turkey seasons span the "spring green-up" period. The season starts in drab wintry gray/brown tones and ends in early summer greenery. Your camouflage should shift to include more green with the season, but pay attention to how long it takes the forest floor to green-up and don't get ahead of the natural progression.
You will find that gray and brown dominant camo, matching brown leaves and gray tree trunks, is the best match until the latter part of the season when the shrubs, bushes and forest ground plants put out their green leaves. However, for turkey hunters, the "wearing of the green" occurs some while after St. Patrick's Day.

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Safety First
By Brenda Valentine
Turkey hunting has become very popular and some turkey hunting locations have become very crowded. For this reason, as well as many others, turkey hunting safety a top priority. Don't wear "gobbler-head" colors -- red, white and blue Even the top of a white T-shirt behind the open collar of a camo shirt stands out in the woods. Consider exposing a swatch of fluorescent orange while you are moving through the woods.
Always sit with your back protected by a tree or rock that's wider than you are. Pick set-up positions that give you a long (longer than shotgun range) view to the front and sides. This is particularly important if you use decoys. Never carry a decoy fully exposed through the woods.
If you see another hunter approaching your camouflaged location speak up in a loud and clearly human voice. Never try to signal with your call or wave your hand. Most important, always be absolutely sure of your target and what is behind it before you pull the trigger.

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Open Country Gobblers
By Matt Morrett
Turkeys have no fear of large open places. Because their great vision is their primary defense, they feel very secure where they can see well and far. Turkeys of both sexes frequently feed in pastures and meadows and gobblers love to strut their stuff out in the open.
On rainy days, turkeys prefer open areas and are frequently seen in pastures, clearcuts and walking along woods roads These are all prime places to look for fresh tracks, feathers and other sign.
Use this to your scouting advantage. When driving in your hunting area always slow down and take a good, thorough look at openings. This is where binoculars are a great help. When walking through your hunting area, approach openings carefully and check them out well before exposing yourself. This means taking a long look at the opening from cover and moving slowly even though you think you are well hidden. If you are careful, you can spot a lot of gobblers out in the open.

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In the Dark
By Michael Waddell
Turkey hunters often must go into the woods in pitch-black darkness, without using a flashlight, to set up close to a gobbler roosted the evening before. To do this successfully requires a real "feel" for the area.
You need to really understand the lay of the land. Where do trails lead? Are there alternate routes to a spot? How do the ridges, creeks and swampy areas relate to each other? Find fences, deep gullies, creeks and any other obstacle that might keep a gobbler from coming to you. By learning where the trails and obstacles are, you will know where (and where not) to set up to try to call a gobbling bird in order to call him and not flush him. The most important think to remember is that in the dark, it often seems we are covering more ground than we actually are. A GPS unit is a real aid for the "in-the-dark" turkey trying to get back to the perfect spot to call a roosted bird.

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Playing The Game
By Joe Drake
During the spring gobbling and mating season, the hens more frequently go to the gobbler than the gobblers go to the hens. Thankfully, gobblers can be enticed to seek out hens or what they think are hens IF they are not already over-blessed with the real thing.
Gobbling is more a territorial thing to warn other gobblers and get the hens' attention. The visual strutting display is hard-core courtship and is the real deal for getting the hen. When close to a hen, the gobbler is looking for any opportunity to stop, strut and show his stuff.
If you call too much or too aggressively as the gobbler closes in, he might stop and strut, thinking the hen is on the way. Back down on the calling when he gets close, so that he's still a bit uncertain about the hen's location. Calling too much to a roosted gobbler can keep him up in the tree, waiting for the "hen" to show up.

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The Final Touch
By David Blanton
Very often that big gobbler gets really close, maybe just a step out of sure range or behind a bush and won't budge. What do you do? Frankly not much, particularly if it involves much movement. If you can see the gobbler, he can see you.
At this point you should have your gun up and ready. That means your box call or slate is on the ground. Getting to them means putting down the gun, picking up and making a call, putting down the call and re-mounting the gun. It's unlikely that that much activity will get by a sharp-eyed gobbler. Even with a blind, you may get caught without your gun ready if the gobbler moves.
Some keep a mouth diaphragm in their mouth for just such moments or mount a push-pull type call on the gun barrel just ahead of the fore-end. Either call will make that one last purr or cluck necessary to bring the gobbler in for the shot.

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Field Care
By Michael Waddell
Turkey, like all poultry, is fragile and prone to quick spoilage. This is particularly true in the warm temperatures of late spring turkey season. Once you have bagged your bird, field dress it immediately and begin the cooling process.
Cut around the anal vent, being careful not to sever the intestine. Next, carefully pull the intestines out. Pulling too hard can cause the intestine to break. Enlarge the opening and reach inside to pull out the liver, heart, gizzard and lungs. (The liver and heart are great eating; wild turkey gizzards are very tough.) Finally, cut the trachea and esophagus as high as you can reach. You are working by feel so be careful not to cut your fingers.
With the body cavity cleaned out, insert a sturdy, empty plastic bag inside and stuff ice into the bag until the cavity is filled. This starts the cooling process from the inside out but the sooner you can get the bird refrigerated the better.

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Don't Over Choke
By Michael Waddell
Turkey hunters love tight patterns and are prone to use the tightest choke they can find. That's fine so long as they check out the pattern performance of any new choke.
Too much choke constriction can result in the lover-choked syndrome, which produces a wildly erratic spray of pellets and a very poor gobbler-getting pattern. Large loads of large pellets are particularly prone to this.
The degree of choke, relative to the bore diameter, is more important than the actual choke constriction, Twelve-gauge bores run from .725 to .730 of an inch. "Back-bored" and "over-bored" guns have larger bores and require less choke constriction to achieve very tight patterns.
When you acquire a new choke tube that is supposedly "super" or "extra" full, always check it out on the pattern board with your favorite turkey load find out if it is producing good, dense patterns. Large loads and/or large pellets frequently produce their best patterns from chokes that are not the tightest constrictions available.